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The United States is due to hit its $14.3 trillion debt limit today, and tensions are understandably on the increase with Republicans and Democrats wide apart on the budget deal the GOP wants in exchange for increasing the ceiling.

World markets and America’s economic future could be jeopardized if negotiators still have no deal when the Treasury Department runs out of tricks to stave off default.

But do those fears a crisis make?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggests not. “Rather than thinking of this as a crisis, I think of it as an opportunity to come together and those talks are under way led by the vice president.”

Those talks are looking for ways to reduce the current annual U.S. budget deficit of $1.4 trillion and the mounting debt. McConnell also says any deal should be reviewed by Wall Street credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s, which has warned it could nix the AAA U.S. debt rating without a credible plan to tackle those pesky fiscal issues.

However, it’s not as if Wall Street and the federal government always see eye to eye, particularly on the regulatory side.

But what does all this mean for the 2012 presidential election?

Hard to tell. But there’s something about Barack Obama that should terrify Republicans: People like him. They really like him.

And get this. On a personal basis? Seventy-two percent of the 1,000 people polled say he’s a swell guy.

That could make it hard for Republicans to organize public discontent over the economy, given that more than half of poll respondents are open to voting for him again even though 47 57 percent disapprove of his economic job performance.

Obama is also well on his way to becoming the great fund-raising juggernaut of the 2012 campaign. He’s expected to raise a record $1 billion for his re-election.

Meanwhile, it’s hard to find a Republican presidential candidate, or a definite GOP wannabe candidate, who doesn’t have a sizeable challenge to overcome.

But things could change. Two top Republicans tell ABC News that they believe Mitch Daniels is in.

With Mike Huckabee out of the running, signs are that other potential candidates could be moving closer to a run. We should learn today whether Donald Trump remains as the star of NBC reality TV show “The Celebrity Apprentice”. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin has hired a new foreign policy adviser.

Author Profile

David Morgan has covered news from Wall Street and Fleet Street to the White House, the Pentagon and Congress, including politics, macroeconomics, military affairs, corporate finance, U.S. intelligence, national security and the international markets. He has also reported from Atlanta on the rise of American conservatism, civil rights, homegrown terrorism and the Olympics, and helped chronicle the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath from Philadelphia, New York and Washington.